With the large databases common in business today, data sorting and filtering is an important part of business management. As databases become larger and the desired filtering and grouping of the data becomes more complex, systems and methods for quickly and easily filtering and grouping data are required.
In reporting systems, such as decision support systems, business intelligence systems and on-line analytical processing systems (OLAP), data sorting and extraction are used to retrieve data in an efficient manner. Often, reports are processor intensive and therefore, many systems lack the ability to extract data quickly as part of the processing. That inability is a drawback in current systems.
Also, the number of functions that may be performed through the OLAP system engine enables quicker and more efficient reports.